Understanding Religion's Relationship To Human Social Systems

 ​ Our journey today begins here: In reply, one asshole wrote:  "No one "doesn't know it when they see it". They see the evidence and aren't convinced by it, and that isn't God's fault. Someone could see the best evidence for God in the world and choose not to be convinced by it because of pride—something God doesn't want us to have."   - Stringer77    --   [My reply]: Nonsense.  Here's the evidence Christians have seen that demonstrates that a Being exists who has the following traits: 1. Knows literally everything: Zero evidence. 2. Has always existed: Zero evidence. 3. Will always exist: Zero evidence. 4. Is eternally necessitated by an immutable nature to always and maximally love (anyone):  Zero evidence.  5. Can literally never fail at anything "he" ever attempts:  Zero evidence. -- Evidence CAN (and actually does) exist that those propositions are NOT true about any Christian's "God".  But we can ignore that for...

[First Draft] Lately, I've seen a resurgence of right-wing, antivaxxer Conspiracy theorists  posting links to this video. In context, they're offering this as a reason nobody should ever listen to anything Noam Chomsky ever says about anything. By extension, they're arguing that nobody should ever listen to anything ever said by anyone who is "on the left".  And by "the left", they mean:  anyone left of them.  That would include anyone who advocates for any of the so-called "left's" talking points; including talking points about Covid.  They offer that video as a way to virtue-signal to other hyper-Conservatives. They do the same thing with various news articles; only some of which are from legitimate news sources. Much of it is baseless conspiracy theory bullshit. [ link to recent news article about this ] [ another example ]  They're also offering it as a way to delegitimize a respected voice who says things the far-right-ist wishes...

This blog was inspired by a discussion happening in a forum on Facebook. Specifically, the issue on the table was: "Did the writers of Matthew, Mark, and Luke/Acts think that Jesus was either part of a Triune-Godhead, or at least the same "God" as the patriarchal deity of 2nd Temple Judaism?" Predictably, a Trinitarian religious fundamentalist said "yes". Predictably, an enabler of unspecified background has rushed in to support that fundamentalist. In context, it's really obvious to me that the enabler was raised in that same ideological culture; no matter how religious they may-or-may-not-be currently. So when I pointed out what actual scholars say about it, I also pointed out that this is a settled issue. In reply, he insisted: There are never any truly settled issues among qualified scholars. Both a real scholar and an honest (and minimally intelligent) laymen would realize this. [Note: this is just a variation of the stunt being...

[First Draft]  Today's livestream; where I read and discussed this blog. Someone, somewhere, started a discussion-thread  where they accused all Abrahamic religions of being obviously false, and mocked believers as being impressively irrational.  In reply, one Christian wrote:  "It’s possible for you to have your beliefs without insulting others. The way the events of my life have played out…..the peace of mind I feel during difficult times, tell me the Lord is at work in my life. And I don’t require your approval to validate my beliefs." --- In reply, I offer this: It's more than a little ironic that Christians think everyone-who-isn't-a-Christian requires Christianity's approval; under penalty of death (or worse) once Daddy gets home. It's equally ironic that IF we meet Christianity with civil respect, then we're automatically dignifying a grossly insulting grift that seeks to enslave and exploit us all. However, I think you raised some imp...